Concept testing a new product
Tools & Resources
Key Learnings
- Getting a potential customer to test a prototype in real life can give you insights about how your product will be received in the market
- It can save you time and money by identifying issues with your product before you commit to mass production
- Product testing can help you attract investment, gain accreditation or inform your advertising strategy
- LaunchPilot, a service provided by Launchpad Research, offers online communities who will test your product and provide feedback on a pre-agreed criteria
You’ve had a great idea for a product but getting it from concept to market can be a long and expensive process. You may choose to make a prototype to see if your idea works before sinking all your money into mass production. But how confident can you really be that your product will be as popular with your target market as you hope? You could ask them to try it. Here, we discuss the benefits of product testing and share a tool that can help you.
Click below to find out more...
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What is product testing?
Product testing usually involves giving samples of your product to a selected group of people who will use it in their daily lives. After an agreed timeframe, they will then provide feedback via surveys, dairies, interviews or scoring systems. This could be about how useful they found the product, if it did what it was meant to do, if they preferred it to competing products, things they liked and didn’t like, if they felt it could be improved in anyway or simply if it is a product that they would buy.
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What are the benefits?
There are many benefits of concept and product testing as results can:
- Support funding applications
- Measure product efficacy and consumer appeal
- Aid in the development and substantiation of powerful product claims for marketing activity
- Provide evidence-based data to satisfy Advertising Standards Authority and ClearCast
- Guide brand positioning within your sector
- Help refine your target audience
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Making it easier with Launchpilot
Unsure where to start when it comes to product testing?
UMi has partnered with Launchpad Research to enable SMEs to conduct product tests with consumers in their own homes.
LaunchPilot is a bespoke online product testing community that tests ideas, products and claims with consumers in their own homes before launch.
It can be used for single product tests, comparison tests against competitor products or testing different formulas, materials and packaging options including:
- Skincare and beauty
- Haircare
- Household and homecare
- Food and drink
- Technology
- Oralcare
- Petcare
The community members have all opted-in to test the products and concepts and they provide feedback via a variety of methods, including online surveys, vlogs, usage diaries and online interviews.
The process...
- Members of the community - known as ‘Pilots’ - are sent survey invitations to participate in a research test
- If selected onto a test, products are posted directly to Pilots for testing. After an agreed usage period they are asked to submit feedback based on their experience.
- Feedback mechanisms are designed to suit the stage and purpose of your business objectives
- Pilots are rewarded for each project they complete. The reward structure has two tiers: financial rewards and gamification rewards to ensure community engagement remains high.
Next steps...
- If you could benefit from concept or product testing, make a list of the key things you would want feedback on from a test community – this could be usability, design, price point, packaging or distribution.
- For further information on using LaunchPilot to test your product click here
- To see what your testing community signs up to on the LaunchPilot portal click here